Day two at Edgbaston was said to be ideal for the batters to show their might. With England all out of 287, India had an opportunity to keep themselves ahead in the match. However, the English bowlers had other ideas as they kept dismissing the Indian batsmen. All barring Virat Kohli that is, who stood tall scoring 149 runs. His was the last wicket to fall with the Indians' innings wrapping up for 274.

Sam Curran picked up four wickets, with Ben Stokes, James Anderson and Adil Rashid pitching in with two wickets each. In England's second innings, former captain Alastair Cook once again lost his wicket cheaply. At the end of the day's play, England were 9/1, with a lead of 22 runs. Ashwin ended the day with Cook's wicket.

With day three seemingly more open, here's a look at how the British media covered the second day's play in Birmingham:

The focus was on Kohli's resistance while the English bowlers, especially Curran, featured as sub-plots. Kohli's commitment was lauded even as it was observed how he received a couple of lifelines after being dropped twice. The article also correlated how the Indian captain had worked towards improving his form in the country after not being able to do well in 2014.

Former England captain Michael Vaughan told BBC Test Match Special: "Alastair Cook will be gutted to get out, but the man whose head will be down in England's dressing room is Dawid Malan.

"It was an easy drop with Kohli on 21. And now the India captain has confidence."

Jimmy Anderson edges duel but Virat Kohli still scales mountain

Andy Bull, the Guardian

The contest that was an important subject of discussion was the one involving Anderson and Kohli. The bowler was said to have the measure of Kohli and everyone wanted to know if Kohli would manage to subdue Anderson. At the start of Kohli's innings, Anderson kept up the pressure on Kohli even as the latter played cautiously and defensively.

However, as the innings progressed, Kohli's confidence grew and Anderson started to tire, prompting a change in the bowling strategy. But this was just the start of the battle with more to come in the days ahead.

Altogether Anderson bowled 74 balls to Kohli, who made only 18 runs off them, 12 of them in 31 balls during the English lead bowler's second spell after tea.

The other 131 he scored came in the 151 deliveries Kohli faced from everyone else. The crowd had booed Kohli when he came out. When he walked off again, they gave him an ovation. Anderson did not join in.

Kohli remained in the spotlight for more than one reason on day two of the first Test at Edgbaston. His English counterpart Joe Root spoke about how he interpreted Kohli's 'mic drop' gesture after he ran him out on day one, on Wednesday.

According to Root, the gesture enhanced the appeal of Test cricket with a tone of humorousness to it. Root also shared his thoughts on the series as well.

‘It makes it a very interesting series, that’s for sure. Let’s see how things pan out over the course of the Test series.’

Before his dismissal, Root became the fastest England player to reach 6,000 runs in Test cricket, and just the 15th overall.

The day's play belonged to Sam Curran and Kohli in equal measure. Curran's potency left the Indian batters adrift despite a 50-run opening partnership between Shikhar Dhawan and Murali Vijay. Curran picked Vijay's and KL Rahul's wickets in quick succession, followed by Dhawan's wicket to leave the team with two new batters out in the middle.

The initial platform laid by Curran helped the rest of the team's bowlers consolidate. Especially, Stokes who removed Rahane and Karthik before Kohli was left holding the fort. But, just like that, the narrative then slid from the hosts to the visitors for the second consecutive day.

On a bruising, pulsating, electrifying day of Test cricket, Sam Curran’s four wickets, an incredible spell of swing bowling by Ben Stokes and an outstanding sustained effort by James Anderson were all somehow cast into the shadow by one man.